Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, Cayman Islands

Our latest roundup of deals worth $1 billion or more includes Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s purchase of Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. for $10.1 billion; Asahi Kasei Corp.’s buy of Polypore International Inc. in a deal valued at $3.2 billion; and a merger between silicon producers Grupo FerroAtlántica and Globe Specialty Metals Inc. for a combined value of $3.1 billion.

Malaysia, United Kingdom

London-based Trowers is the first to take advantage of changes in the country’s law that had prohibited foreign firms from operating there. But other firms with a much bigger Southeast Asian presence aren’t rushing in behind them.

Australia

Australia’s Slater & Gordon, the world’s first publicly traded law firm, is headed to Wales after acquiring a pair of personal injury shops in the U.K. The move comes as a co-founder of a prominent U.S. litigation finance firm calls for the adoption of alternative business structures by U.S. law firms.

The firm has put in place a new policy that requires each of its more than 5,000 employees in about 25 countries to devote 25 hours per year to community service. The policy is unique because it does not just apply to lawyers, and it will encompass the international offices.

China

Four China-based accounting firms affiliated with the "Big Four" on Friday agreed to pay $500,000 each to settle charges by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that they refused to turn over documents in multiple fraud investigations.

China, Israel

Over the objections of defense lawyers at Dorsey & Whitney and Squire Patton Boggs, Bank of China was ordered to turn over internal investigation records that could help plaintiffs tie the bank to a 2006 Palestinian terrorist attack.

China

Five days after The American Lawyer broke news of the impending combination between Dentons and Asia's largest firm, the union is now official. Chinese regulators gave the expected green light to the landmark deal between China-based Dacheng Law Offices and Dentons early on Monday Beijing time, clearing the way for the signing ceremony.

Japan

Toyota Motor Corp. is in settlement talks with a former translator and self-described whistleblower who was sanctioned last month for posting on a blog internal documents related to its sudden acceleration defects.

Singapore

Former Gibson Dunn & Crutcher partner John Viverito will be the firm's new managing partner in the city-state, while former Jones Day partner Joseph Bauerschmidt is now the head of Southeast Asia capital markets. Former Gibson Dunn of counsel Myles Hankin is also making the move.

China, Hong Kong

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson chair David Greenwald says the firm's decision to effectively close its Hong Kong and Shanghai offices and pull out of Asia, as revealed by The American Lawyer on Monday, was a "difficult but necessary decision."

China

While law firm leaders and legal observers marvel at the scope and scale of the tie-up between Dentons and China's Dacheng to create the world's largest firm, several also wonder how the two sides will pull off such a massive undertaking, and whether it will ultimately be successful.

China

The world will soon have a new largest law firm. Dentons and leading Chinese firm Dacheng are poised to announce a combination creating a 6,600-lawyer legal giant operating under the Swiss verein structure.

Japan

American Honda Motor Co. Inc. will pay two fines totaling a record $70 million to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report deaths, injuries and certain warranty claims to the federal government.

In his International Environmental Law column, Stephen L. Kass writes that the tension between economists, investors and manufacturers favoring the elimination of most constraints on international trade and environmentalists (and labor advocates) fearful of a "race to the bottom" by countries competing for new factories has once again taken center stage in a struggle that is threatening to derail the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.